Russia 2

Listen to Russia 2, a 59-year-old man from Moscow, Russia. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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Please note: This subject does not provide a reading of scripted speech (Comma Gets a Cure or The Rainbow Passage).

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 59

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1940

PLACE OF BIRTH: Moscow, Russia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Russian/white

OCCUPATION: actor

EDUCATION: Vaktangov school

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: N/A

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject’s English was still very halting, though his recitation of a poem by Pushkin that concludes the interview is superb. Being an actor, one suspects that his pronunciation skills are ahead of his command of vocabulary and grammar, which may explain his ability to overcome many of the classic mispronunciations one associates with a “Russian accent.” However, this would be a superb model for an actor portraying a Russian character whose English is still very poor.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/02/1999

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

My life is very good. I’m very happy because I dreamt about this life. I-I-I could not dream about this life. I was uhh, normal, normal uhm, guy in uh, Moscow, and my uhh, parents was uh, normal, normal people uhm, mother was uhh – were – mother were or was? Was. My mother, Maria, was uh, doctor, a therapist, and my father uhh, is uhm, professor uh, econometric uh, mathematican and economy, and my dream was uh, to be uh, journalist or literature, but uh, I was excited about theatre and I became suddenly uh, an actor. Yes. And my school was Moscow, ehh, name Vaktangov school, and uh, I-I learned there and after that I became actor and after that I became uh, uh, director and literature and I-I-I had three dreams, maybe four – three is not shy – I-I-I dreamt about uh, stage, like actor and director, and I, I do it. And I uh, dream about uhm, literature, I do it. And fourth – maybe – uhh, to, to be traveler, traveler and uh, to see all, mmm, all the world and eh, this uh, this time is proof for this my dream. I, I see, I see uh, my Russia and I see uh, many in other countries, for example, America uhh, I-I, I traveled through America, it was big trip three, three times and, uhh, three, three years ago I was in uh, forty, forty uh, states in America, yeah, twenty-two thousand miles by my car with my very lovely and, uh, beautiful wife, and I uhh, I, I speak English now very bad, but I am trying to do it. My students understand me, or maybe they are very kind. In Russian, mmm, Pushkin. [Subject reads in Russian.] Thank you very much.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Corley Pillsbury

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/02/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

If you are a dialect researcher, or an actor using this sample to develop your skill in the accent, please see my instruction manual at www.paulmeier.com. As the speaker in this sample is a unique individual, it is highly unlikely that he will conform to my analysis in every detail. But you will find it interesting and instructive to notice which of my “signature sounds” and “additional features” (always suggested only as commonly heard features of the accent) are widely used by most speakers of the accent, and which are subject to variation from individual to individual.

COMMENTARY BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/10/2016

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.
• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.
• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

 

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.